Teen Big Brother (C4)

Colosseum - Rome's Arena of Death (BBC1)

THE educational value of Teen Big Brother, in which eight 18-year-olds are shut up in the House, may well elude some viewers.

Adults are already aware that teenagers swear, talk about sex, sleep, talk some more about sex, eat, talk even more about sex and then, in this series, actually have sex.

We know from advance publicity that Channel 4 has finally achieved the holy grail of the Big Brother concept - capturing on camera a couple having sex under the duvet.

Viewers must wait until later in the week for this voyeuristic opportunity. Until then, we have nightly edited highlights of an allegedly-educational experience mounted by 4Learning for daytime screening. This, at least, means we don't have to sit through the boring bits as we do on the adult version.

Once the teenagers had overcome the initial shock of being somewhere they'd seen previously on TV ("It just doesn't seem real"/"Oh my god, wicked"), it was down to basics. Big Brother had blocked the toilet, a bit of a dirty trick. Thoughtfully, housemates were provided with protective clothing and an instructional video so they could fix the problem themselves.

I bet they never thought, when they signed up, that they'd end up with their hands down a toilet bowl. Then they got dirty with each other, hardly surprising as the makers provided only one bedroom for all eight housemates.

The mix of housemates was also designed for maximum conflict. They include a gay hairdresser, a mouthy Scouser and a Muslim virgin (who apologised on air to his father for sharing a bedroom with the opposite sex but promised nothing would happen).

There's no sign yet of romance between the couple who "do it", although the conversation has ranged over pregnancy, abortion, gays, bi-sexuals, racism and the power of prayer.

There are already signs it will end in tears. The housemates failed their first task - to fly an aircraft from London to Birmingham, while playing at being pilots and attendants - and have only £27.37 for eight days' food. Life is going to be as hard for them as it was for Verus, the real life gladiator whose story was told through reconstruction and computer graphics in Colosseum - Rome's Arena Of Death.

He progressed from being a slave, cutting stone in the quarries, to being one of the best fighters competing in front of a 50,000 crowd in the new Flavian Amphitheatre, now better known as the Colosseum.

Gladiators were the rock stars or Premiership footballers of their day, regarded as heartthrobs by Roman women and much admired for their swordsmanship in and out of the arena.

This was all very watchable in an illustrated history book sort of way, but nowhere near as exciting as Ridley Scott's movie Gladiator which, coincidentally, is being shown on five on Sunday.